New Beginnings
by AshleyIsNoRobot
Summary: Carl had asked for her hand in marriage; she said yes. But when Emma's marriage falls apart, Will helps her clean up the mess, and together they fight to find bliss once more.
1. Chapter 1

"Emma, you're ridiculous."

She clenched her jaw, peering up from the surface she had been scrubbing at fiercely for the past hour. Slowly, cleaning, for her, was becoming less of a result of her phobia and more of a response to stress and frustration. A slow sigh escaped her lips and she continued, averting the intense gaze of her husband.

'Husband'. She never had quite gotten used to that word, even after a year's time. On the contrary, as the days progressed she regretted marriage more and more. Carl had been amazing at first. Taking her out to fancy restaurants, showering her in affection and adoration that, as far as Emma was concerned, couldn't be matched by anyone else. He loved her and she fell quite quickly for him, and after six months of dating, he proposed. Naturally, she said yes; who wouldn't? Financial security, trust, love, communication, respect. The foundation for a perfect marriage was there. She was under the apparently false impression that she had it all. Another six months after the proposal the ceremony was held, and it only took four months before the marriage began to crumble. Now, approaching their one year wedding anniversary, Emma was absolutely miserable. Apparently, Carl was, too.

Tension always ran high when both were in the same room together. They were lucky to exchange more than ten words a day to one another and they avoided each other like the plague. It was insane and yet neither of them were about to initiate a conversation about something like 'divorce', because no doubt it would end up in a severe argument.

Yet, somehow, they put on a show for the public. On the few occasions that they did go out together, they smiled and acted as though nothing had changed. As far as anyone was concerned, both were happy and head over heels in love. Carl never let his failing marriage affect him personally, but there was most certainly a change in Emma. Even though she was shy before, she spoke even less to her co-workers. She kept her head down a lot and the wall she built around herself was growing by the day, afraid that someone (more specifically, Will Schuester) might notice that she was breaking.

Will. She hadn't spoken to him in almost a year (the night prior to her wedding, to be exact), but she supposed that was because he was still trying to get over the heartbreak of her marriage. As far as Emma could see, he was still pretty torn up over it and had only given up on her after she said "I do". He had shown up on her door step while she was packing for her honeymoon, crying, begging for one last shot. One last chance at the romance he, according to him, craved so dearly. He urged that he loved her, took her hand, and threw away every ounce of dignity away in a final attempt to win her back. She tearfully turned away and, when she spoke her vows in front of Carl, she saw, in her peripheral vision, as all of Will's hopes were stolen from him and she watched him trudge out of the wedding hall, head bowed. Ever since then the most she saw of him was when he passed in the hallways, and he very rarely looked up at her.

It came as a shock when Carl came home, declaring that he needed to speak to her. Already stressed out, she had been in the middle of scrubbing down the house when he came home, and by no means was she about to stop. Finally, under the intensity of his glare, Emma sighed exasperatedly and pulled off her plastic gloves, clasping her hands in front of her as she straightened up.

"You said you wanted to talk?"

Carl looked unnerved, which was quite contradicting to his usual stubborn, confident demeanor. Guilt was evident in his eyes and, immediately, she softened. He placed a hand on her lower back and led her over to the couch. A frown playing along her lips, she took a seat and leaned back, looking at him curiously.

"Emma," he began, looking into her eyes, "I… I'm so sorry." Her brow furrowed in confusion, but she didn't speak, because soon enough Carl continued. "I… I've been having an a-affair." He dared to look up at her. Despite the fact that their marriage was already crumbling, despite the fact that she hardly loved him anymore, betrayal and hurt stabbed her right in the chest and she could do nothing more than stare at him, incredulously, hurt reflected in every inch of her expression. And just when she thought it could get no worse, he opened his mouth again. "Her name… Is Linda. And… Emma, she's… She's pregnant."

Emma gasped lightly, her eyes snapping closed. It was almost as though she were trying to erase his words, erase his actions. Erase him. She fought, tried to reason that she was dreaming, but when she opened her eyes, it was clear that nothing she could do would better the situation.

He breathed her name again, apologizing lightly, but she would have none of it. She couldn't. Slowly, cautiously, the fingers of her right hand rose to fumble with her wedding ring, sliding it off her finger and setting it on the coffee table. Tears were in both of their eyes and as Emma rose, quickly advancing towards the door, she found that the heartbreak was that much worse.

Carl wasn't coming after her.

So she got in her car and drove. She felt broken and, due to her lack of wedding ring and cleaning supplies, rather naked. Her mind was completely elsewhere, and she allowed her subconscious to carry her to an apartment complex across town. Emma wasn't even clear on where she was at (though deep down, she knew all too well where she was), and she parked, bursting into tears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I realize there's a lot of fluff and angst with this and I have no idea where to take it, haha. But honestly, reviews fuel my muse, so any of those would be spectacular. I'm kind of really rambling on with this story. My apologies.**

Will Schuester was miserable.

He couldn't remember the last time he had spoken to Emma. It had been far too long, and he knew that, but talking to her hurt almost as much as seeing her did. It was selfish, he knew, but he hated seeing her happy, because she wasn't happy with him. No, she was happy with that damn dentist (who, as far as Will was concerned, didn't deserve a name). Or at least she had been, but at the very least he just couldn't, for the life of him, get the memory of her wedding day out of his head. It was insane - a year later and the very last thing he saw before he went to bed was, still, the image of Emma in her wedding dress, standing at the altar. It killed him. He had never seen anything more beautiful than the woman he loved, her fragile body adorned in a simple, gorgeous gown, her hair pulled elegantly back, a smile on her face and tears of joy in her eyes.

And her eyes, well, those were an entirely different story. He noted, once a few months back, that if he thought about it enough, her eyes told a story. The one thing that never varied about them was that they were beautiful. They were the kind of eyes that Will longed to get lost in, the ones he wanted to fill with love. Lust. The beauty never wavered but the emotions in them had. He could remember, back when she first began working at William McKinley, the look of nerves overtook her completely. Will remembered watching as she helped her first student, and the worry turned to focus. As she grew more comfortable with the students, that focus turned to care and, soon enough, she looked at him the exact same way. Only two years ago, Emma had looked at him with love and longing, and while there had already been feelings stirring deep within him, her gazes made him fall harder than he could ever have imagined. He could remember the look of heartbreak when she told him that she had resigned from her position at the school after being dumped by Ken. His favorite was the look of happiness, love, and adoration he had the full pleasure of seeing during their brief relationship. He remembered the hurt when she found out about Shelby Corcoran and April Rhodes, the uneasiness when she told him about Carl and the inner turmoil when he kissed her and vowed to fight for her. He could remember the contemplation and apologetic look in her eyes when he showed up at her apartment the night before the wedding, begging for her back. He vividly (and quite unfortunately) recalled her happiness and sense of family on her wedding day. But lately, the strong emotions had been absent. The few times he had dared to look at her, he noticed that she kept her eyes down. She looked, quite simply, sad, but was doing a marvelous job at hiding it. Will wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to know if she was okay, how her marriage was going, but he couldn't bring himself to strike up conversation after all this time.

Because, even now, even when all hope for them was seemingly lost, he loved her. He loved her with every inch of his being. He had been told numerous times throughout his life that time healed emotional wounds. He was told that things would get better, that he wouldn't hurt forever but he still felt as numb now as he did the night she married. He had no hope that he would ever get over this, over her, because he missed his chance and the resentment he felt towards himself for that always made him sick to his stomach.

Frankly, Will was lonely. He had plenty of opportunities to move on, women who more than happily would have accepted an offer to go on a date but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to. He loved Emma and he always would, and as long as he saw her every once in awhile, that would never change. Once, he briefly considered moving, to try and get his mind off of her, but that would be no use; he would miss her. Even to this day, he made the effort to walk past her office, just to catch a glimpse of her. She was still as beautiful as ever and that wouldn't help him at all.

He was seated on his couch, as per usual, wallowing in self pity and watching sports. It wasn't as though he particularly liked watching sporting events, but it kept his mind elsewhere, so he had taken up the obsession. School had just let out for the summer and therefore he wouldn't have the distraction of Glee or teaching, and he was alone with his thoughts. It really wasn't a healthy lifestyle.

There was a knock on his apartment door and, quite over dramatically, Will rolled his eyes and pushed himself to his feet. Curiosity carried him to the door, but the sheer reluctance to talk to anyone kept his hand idle on the door knob. He mused over his options for a second before calling through the wood, "Who is it?"

Will listened close, and on the other side he could hear some gentle sobbing. After a violent sniffle, he heard, in a familiar, soft voice, "I-it's me, W-will. It's Emma." His eyes widened and he whipped open the door, though at first he was sure his ears had deceived him. But sure enough, before his very eyes, he watched as his beloved bowed her head and cried.

The actions that followed were, quite oddly, natural.

He pulled her inside and shut the door behind her to avoid attracting attention, and he quietly led her over to the couch. Will sat down first and pulled Emma into his lap, momentarily surprised that she didn't pull away. He gathered her up in a tight embrace, his stomach churning with all around worry. She leaned into him and sobbed into his shoulder, clinging close. He probably should have found this weird, due to their history and the fact that they hadn't spoken in so long, but in his mind it was as though none of this terrible shit had happened. He focused on comforting her, rubbing her back and whispering reassuring things into her ear, and after some ridiculously long time she calmed down, wiping at her eyes.

Emma opened her mouth to apologize but Will stopped her with words of his own. "Emma, love, what happened?"

"Carl," she choked out, and he decided not to point out the fact that he already guessed that fact. What he hadn't guessed was what she mumbled out next. "G-got another woman p-pregnant."

He gasped, pulling her closer. "Like… Before you guys met, or…?" His jaw clenched as she shook her head, and he silently vowed to kill the damn dentist later. "Oh, Emma. I'm so sorry. You don't… You don't deserve that." He reached forward to take her left hand, holding it up to lace his fingers through hers. He noticed, briefly, that she had already taken off her wedding ring. Selfishly, hope surged through him and he pulled their joined hands over to his heart.

"I'm here for you."

"Thank you, Will."


End file.
